Geddy Lee has shared a strange experience that made him wonder whether late Rush drummer Neil Peart had sent him a sign following the opening night of the band’s Fifty Something tour.
Rush returned to the stage with drummer Anika Nilles behind the kit, beginning a new chapter for Lee and Alex Lifeson following Peart’s death in 2020. After the opening show, however, Lee experienced an unusual moment at his Los Angeles hotel that immediately reminded him of his longtime bandmate.
Lee was asked directly whether he had ever felt Peart’s presence since his death. “Spooky question!” Lee responded before recalling what happened after the tour’s opening night.
“Well, it’s funny. I’ll tell you a little story,” he said. “After the opening night, we were staying in L.A., and I was texting Al [Alex Lifeson]. We were in the same hotel, but we were texting each other.”
While Lee was in his hotel room, he noticed that his door had been left slightly open. That was when something unexpected caught his attention.
“My door to my room was open a crack, and I don’t know if you’ve seen the posters [for Rush’s Fifty Something tour] that have two birds on a wire and the one bird is flying away,” Lee explained. “I looked in front of me, on the floor, and there was a bird on the floor that looked just like that bird in the poster.”
The similarity immediately struck Lee, particularly because of the imagery associated with Rush’s new tour. He approached the bird, but instead of immediately flying away, it moved further inside his room.
“I was kind of shocked,” Lee continued. “And, you know, I love birds, so I approached it, and it flew by me and flew into my bedroom and sat on the edge of my bed.”
The encounter became even more unusual when Lee felt as though the bird was watching him. “When I approached it, it was like it was looking at me, and then it flew out the door,” he recalled. Lee immediately told Lifeson what had happened. “So, I quickly ran to the computer and was texting Al this crazy story that had just happened,” he said.
The timing gave the experience additional meaning. Rush’s Fifty Something tour marks Lee and Lifeson’s return to performing Rush music together with Nilles taking on the enormous responsibility of playing Peart’s drum parts. The opening night therefore represented an emotional milestone for the surviving members.
Peart died in January 2020 at the age of 67 following a private battle with glioblastoma. Beyond his role as Rush’s drummer, he was the band’s primary lyricist and an essential part of the creative partnership that defined Rush for decades.
Lee stopped short of claiming with certainty that the bird was a message from Peart. Still, its appearance immediately after Rush’s return, combined with its striking resemblance to the bird featured in the Fifty Something tour artwork, made the encounter difficult for him to ignore.
Whether it was simply an unusual coincidence or something more personal, the moment gave Lee an unexpected connection to Peart at the very beginning of Rush’s new chapter.
